


Long After the Brick

by ninemoons42



Category: Brick (2005), Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - High School, Dreams, Gen, Imaginary Friends, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-27
Updated: 2011-05-27
Packaged: 2017-10-19 20:08:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/204731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninemoons42/pseuds/ninemoons42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Arthur, a visit to his long-buried past is just a PASIV device away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long After the Brick

  
title: Long After the Brick  
author: [](http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**ninemoons42**](http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org/)  
characters: Arthur as Brendan Frye. Emily, Tug, and Brain. Mention of the Inception characters. Arthur/Ariadne discussed; one-sided Arthur/Eames mentioned.  
warnings: As mentioned above, this is a fic in which I take the story of _Brick_ as the backstory for Arthur the point man in Inception. In other words: Brendan Frye is Arthur.  
This is my first Brick fic, so please be nice. Concrit would be much welcomed.  
Cut text taken from "The Real Folk Blues", the ending theme to the anime _Cowboy Bebop_.  
disclaimer: I don't own the original story or the characters. Not making any profit, just playing in the sandbox.  
summary: For Arthur, a visit to his long-buried past is just a PASIV device away.

  
A storm drain under an overcast sky. He looks up, and the bare trees are dark shadows against the looming clouds. Water flowing rapidly at his feet, detritus borne on the current, and a quiet babbling.

Someone is walking out of the storm drain, and Arthur has been here before.

Pale skin, blonde hair falling past her shoulders. Emily looks a little older, now, and there are very faint lines in the corners of her eyes.

He has been seeing her in his subconscious for the last ten years.

She stops just an arm's length away from him, smiles at his suit, his slicked-back hair. "Missing your glasses again?"

"I don't need them here," Arthur says. "Not in my dreams."

She shrugs lightly. "Come to visit?"

Arthur brushes his fingers fleetingly against her sweater. "...Yes."

Emily turns to him, then, and smiles. "Hello. It's good to see you. You've been very busy, haven't you?"

Arthur nods. "Yes. I was working on a very big, very important job. I almost didn't make it back."

"Good thing you had us." Tug is bigger, more scarred, and he wears a scuffed-up denim jacket over his usual white shirt. He is carrying two revolvers where he used to have only one. "Kept us busy. That woman trying to go after you."

"You won't be seeing her again," Arthur says. "I think we've lost her for good."

"A classic case of post-traumatic stress disorder leading to psychosis, and that's just for starters," a new voice says, and Brain walks out of the storm drain, squinting at the world through his thick glasses. "Limbo can have such a terrible effect on people, and the vast majority simply don't or won't go back to the real world. She was quite a piece of work. Did you know her, too?"

"I did," Arthur says. "She was a friend; she was very kind to me. And now...now, she's gone."

"Gone like...?" Emily asks.

"Gone like dead and gone. Gone like I hope I don't see her again for a long time gone."

The world blurs, and now they're all sitting on and around a single bed with crumpled sheets. A digital clock with a red display on the table next to the bed, and an old-fashioned rotary telephone in heavy black plastic.

Emily and Tug are sitting close together near the pillows.

"Back in your safe place," Brain says, and he rolls off the foot of the bed, arranges himself in a nest of blankets on the floor.

"You three are my safe place," Arthur says, and he looks at each of them in turn.

There is a brief silence, and Tug refuses to meet his eyes.

"What?"

"Are you sure it's just us?" Emily finally says. "I saw her, you know, the girl you were walking with on those stairs. You kissed her, too. The two of you would make a good team."

"We would, but I'm not her type."

"Your friend with the squint?" Brain asks.

"Cobb? He's not really my friend right now, what with all the bad shit he was doing. Had to stay by his side twenty-four-seven just to keep him alive, and then he didn't even have the manners to tell us everything we needed to do the last job. I'm going to have to avoid him for a year or two - though I know I'll miss his kids."

Tug is still looking down when he says, "And what about that other guy, the one who could change into other people? Doesn't he keep you safe? Wasn't he worried for you?"

Arthur looks around at them, at the faces of his subconscious, and they all look back at him with knowing, kind eyes.

"Why am I not surprised to know that you know about Eames?"

"You've been watching him," Brain says, simply, and that makes the others react. Tug snorts and shakes his head in amusement. Emily chuckles quietly.

"I guess I have," Arthur says, and he feels his ears heat up with the tell-tale blush that had made him grow his hair long and messy in high school. "Hard to take my eyes off him...he's dangerous, he's got all this insight. He's a predator, my kind of predator."

"We know, Arthur," Emily says, and now she shifts to sit next to him, makes him put his head on her shoulder. "No need to explain him to us."

"Only question is, what're you waiting for?" Tug asks, and Brain nods.

Arthur answers, as honestly as he can. "I wish I knew. He won't let me treat him as I did any of you, but still, I don't want to do that to him. And losing him would kill me, like losing all of you almost did."

Their sympathetic faces are the last thing he sees as the kick hits: the chorus to "The Real Folk Blues".  



End file.
